Lignocellulose Extraction from Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunches Using Choline Chloride–Oxalic Acid-Based Deep Eutectic Solvent

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6463-920-9_19How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Oil palm empty fruit bunch (OPEFB); deep eutectic solvents (DES); choline chloride

Abstract

Oil palm empty fruit bunches (OPEFB) are an abundant lignocellulosic by-product from the palm oil industry, representing a valuable feedstock for biopolymer recovery. In this study, a deep eutectic solvent (DES) system composed of choline chloride and oxalic acid (in a 1:1 molar ratio) was employed to fractionate OPEFB into cellulose- and lignin-rich components under mild extraction conditions (90 ℃, 3 h). Compositional analysis using the Chesson method revealed an increase in cellulose content from 32.52% in raw OPEFB to 36.79% and 38.84% in two treated replicates, while lignin content decreased from 16.13% to 15.37% and 15.70%, respectively. Hemicellulose content remained relatively stable, indicating the selectivity of the DES system toward lignin solubilization. Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy confirmed these results. The extracted cellulose fraction exhibited strong O–H and β-glycosidic C–O–C bands with reduced lignin-specific aromatic signals, suggesting successful delignification. In contrast, the lignin fraction displayed prominent aromatic C = C, C–O, and carbonyl absorptions, aligning well with commercial alkali lignin. The spectral similarity between both extracted fractions and their respective commercial standards underscores the structural preservation and purity of the recovered biopolymers. Overall, these findings highlight the potential of choline chloride–oxalic acid DES for efficient and selective lignocellulosic biomass fractionation. This approach contributes to the development of green biorefineries and offers a sustainable pathway for valorizing agro-industrial residues, such as OPEFB. Future work will focus on the recyclability of solvents and the downstream utilization of recovered cellulose and lignin.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Iftidha’ul Eka Agustina
AU  - Yuni Kusumastuti
AU  - Teguh Ariyanto
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/12/15
TI  - Lignocellulose Extraction from Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunches Using Choline Chloride–Oxalic Acid-Based Deep Eutectic Solvent
BT  - Proceedings of the International Conference on Recent Innovations in Sustainable Engineering Solutions 2025 (ICONRISES 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 182
EP  - 190
SN  - 2352-5401
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-920-9_19
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6463-920-9_19
ID  - Agustina2025
ER  -